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HDCCTV perfect for the UK CCTV installer

HDCCTV . Why it will sell more cameras than IPCCTV in the UK.

How many miles of coaxial cable currently service CCTV camera systems here in the UK? Well I don’t know and I would suggest that this has never been documented. But lets consider. CCTV has been actively sold into UK business’s on a large commercial scale since the early 70’s and there must be hundreds of thousands if not millions of miles of coax still servicing perfectly good CCTV systems right now.

Is HDCCTV better than IPCCTV?

IPCCTV must not be discounted in fact in most other countries across the world IPCCTV will take off , it already has and we embrace this technology completely. But in the UK we have a slightly different scenario right now and that’s why HDCCTV will be the main technology installed here over the next 10 years.

HDCCTV installers in the UK.

So what’s unique about the UK CCTV market place and why will HDCCTV be so popular. Well we have already mentioned the vast amount of legacy coax that is waiting to be used. In addition, as salesmen we hear the same story time and time again. Customers want quality images, customers want to be able to zoom in on an image ,either in live mode or in recorded mode and see a face or see a number plate, they all hate pixelation as it effectively renders current analogue CCTV systems useless and is the biggest downfall of analogue CCTV. What’s more everyone in the UK knows it.

Cheap HDCCTV?

So why don’t all these disgruntled customers go over to IPCCTV and megapixel cameras, surely that’s the way forward? Well again as we mentioned earlier there are a couple of factors here in the UK that are ideal for HDCCTV to find its footing. 1) cheap analogue CCTV from the far east currently supplied by the likes of Maplins and other cheap Internet sites mean that many companies struggle to justify the huge difference in cost between the two technologies (analogue CCTV and IPCCTV). HDCCTV can give quality images but maintain current infrastructure, so costs can be kept right down in an upgrade situation. Secondly UK installers are struggling with IP. From experience I can confirm that contrary to popular belief IPCCTV takes much more resource than many would care to admit. The plug and play concept of IP is not quite as its made out to be and most installers are finding it very difficult to get the cooperation of IT departments in order to get network points adjacent to cameras or use existing switches and networks. So much so, its now almost the norm with IPCCTV to run your own local network for the camera system and supply your own POE switch, this completely defeats the point of IPCCTV in many cases and makes the whole job far less profitable.

Servicing IPCCTV

Further problems still exist with servicing, If you have a national contract every engineer you have needs a laptop, IT training, remote access and current software and so the list goes on. Software conflicts are a complete nightmare and a CCTV installer without its own IT support will not be able to overcome many of the problems that are facing him. That’s why IPCCTV still has not taken off in the UK.

HDCCTV sales

So how does HDCCTV find its way into the mainstream security market place? Well here in the UK we have sales guys. Sales guys love to sell the sizzle! HD is a buzz word that consumers know and have seen at home on their own TV sets. All who have experienced this technology will agree that its quite brilliant in the quality of images that are provided. So straight away HDCCTV is something the end user will feel comfortable with.

Price of HDCCTV

Price of an HDCCTV system will be important. Again we all know we have to pay more for HD, this is already accepted by the end user, but if we are able to keep this cost reasonable by using an existing coax infrastructure then we have a sale. Add to this the fact that CCTV engineers don’t need re-training and will feel entirely at home with the installation then again we have a winner. No software, no laptops, no IT department to deal with. Just on and off site with maximum profit and no costly revisits to upgrade software or program an IP address. This means on going service will be easy and profitable… even more reason for the CCTV industry to embrace HDCCTV.